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Fairfax Business Association honorees pose during the organization's 16th Annual Black Tie Affair held recently at Fairfax Place in Cleveland.  From left Attorney James Gay, Our Lady of Peace Church Pastor Gary Chmura, Brenda Hubbard Tolbert, 19 Action News Reporter Harry Boomer, and William Earl Morris. (Photo by Jeff Ivey)

19 Action News Reporter Harry Boomer gives the keynote address at the 16th Annual Fairfax Business Association's Black Tie Affair. Boomer also received a community service award from the organization. (Photo by Jeff Ivey)

Cleveland Ward 6 Councilwoman Mamie Mitchell presents 19 Action News Reporter Harry Boomer with a certificate of recognition on behalf of Cleveland City Council and Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson for outstanding community service and excellence in the field of broadcast journalism. (Photo by Jeff Ivey)

Cleveland Urban News. Com and The Cleveland Urban News.Com Blog, Ohio's Most Read Online Black Newspaper(www.clevelandurbannews.com)

CLEVELAND, Ohio- Successful Black businesses are what help Black communities thrive, and the recent Fairfax Business Association's 16th Annual Black Tie Affair that featured 19 Action News Anchorman and Reporter Harry Boomer as the keynote speaker served to recognize a host of Cleveland entrepreneurs and others that have given back to the greater Cleveland community.

Tony Dial was the master of ceremonies.

Boomer, a respected and seasoned television broadcaster of 42 years who lives in the Huff area in Ward 7 in the heart of a ghetto of Cleveland where the Huff Riots resonated in 1966,  gave a down home speech replete with reminders of the vestiges of slavery and its impact on Black America and why the Black community must continue its support of Black businesses.

He preached that President Barack Obama, the nation's first Black president, also deserves the ongoing support of the Black community, and that Obama has been surely tested in his role as the country's chief executive.

In addition to Boomer, who received an award for community service and excellence in broadcast journalism, other award recipients were Businessman William Earl Morris, Day Care Owners Candice Milton and Alfreda Davis, City of Cleveland Building and Housing Manager Brenda Hubbard Tolbert, Our Lady of Peace Pastor Gary Chmura, and Attorney James Gay.

Gay received the group's most notable Seawright Award, an award named for the late William Seawright, a Cleveland Fairfax area businessman and real estate contractor.

"I can become a star journalist but I do not become relevant until I come out into the community," said Boomer to the audience at Fairfax Place in Cleveland where the annual awards affair is traditionally held. "Self sufficiency must be tried and true like our president, Barack Hussein Obama, who was elected not only once, but twice."

Boomer said that Blacks need to regroup, and to remember the struggle for freedom and equality that caused riots and hangings, and disenfranchisement that still plagues the Black community today through mass incarceration of Black men, an unjust legal system, and low self esteem of those unable to overcome the barriers of racism.

"We have to first proclaim who we are," Boomer said. "When was the last time you heard us say "Say It Loud, I'm Black And I'm Proud?"

The seasoned journalist stressed that Blacks must never cease efforts to "reach the mountain top that the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. talked about."

Morris, who owns and operates Morris Siding Company, thanked the FBA for honoring him and said that "its been a long hard struggle [building the business], but we are still doing it."

The honorees also accepted certificates of recognition from the FBA, Cleveland Ward 6 Councilwoman Mamie Mitchell, who attended the event, Ohio Congresswoman Marcia L. Fudge (D-11), Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson, state Sen. Nina Turner (D-25), and Cuyahoga County Councilman Pernel Jones Jr. (D-8).

Led by Greg Roberts, the FBA was formed as a networking and community service organization for greater Cleveland Black business owners to build relationships and share resources.

"We compliment all of the honorees and thank them for their unselfish service to the community," said Roberts.

Deborah Pye, a former Cleveland schools principal who owns Fairfax Place with her husband, president and CEO Melvin Pye Jr., said that Black business owners know how to rise to the occasion to overcome obstacles to remain a viable part of the community.

"We fall down but we get up, and that is why we are here today," said Pye.

Officers and affiliates of the FBA include President Roberts, Vice President Alma Smith, Secretary Betty Mahone, Parliamentarian Dionne Thomas Carmichael, Organization Ambassador Victor S. Reed,  Sergeant at Arms O.J. Stanberry, and Fundraising Chairman Phyllis Robinson.

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